Mobile devices are often used in a more personal manner than a general computing device. Thus, a mobile device is often considered more personal to a particular user than a general computing device, which may be used by multiple people. Mobile devices are often identified in different ways for different services. For example, a mobile communications carrier may identify a mobile device with a mobile identification number (MIN) that the carrier assigns for a corresponding subscriber of the carrier services. When the mobile device is running a browser application and requests a web page from a mobile web server, a mobile communications carrier gateway typically relays the MIN between the mobile web server and the mobile device to route the request and response. Accordingly, MINs are also generally used by the mobile web server to identify individual devices so as to track web requests from millions of devices and build business intelligence. A carrier gateway acts as a proxy between a mobile device and a mobile web server by forwarding requests from the device to the server and returning responses including pages from the server to the device. Although the MIN may be used by the web server, the MIN for a device is generally managed by a carrier, which associates the MIN to the appropriate requesting subscriber. A service provider, such as web portal, and a communications carrier can have an agreement to use MINs to identify traffic and requests from devices used by subscribers. Generally, a carrier forwards a MIN as part of a request from a device to a web server of the service provider. More specifically, a request is typically routed along a path from a device to a carrier gateway and to the destination web server. The carrier gateway may insert an indirect service-dependent ID such as the MIN into the original request to the web server. Similarly, the MIN can be used for legacy browsers that do not support browser cookies (bcookies), because they communicate through a carrier access network. In general, a MIN can also be used with other client-server applications.
However, other service-dependent identifiers can also be used for other communication channels. For example, if a device requests web services via a WiFi network, which does not go through a carrier access network, some mechanisms other than a MIN may be needed to identify the device. In this case, a browser cookie, a device IP address or other service-dependent identifier may be needed.
Similarly, when a subscriber's same mobile device is running another application, such as a J2ME-based client application, the mobile device typically sends a client ID, rather than a MIN, when requesting a service from an application server. The client ID generally identifies the client application running on the client, but the client application and the application server are not necessarily aware that the client ID and the MIN are associated with the same mobile device. Examples of such applications include an instant messaging application, an email application, a photo management application, and the like. As another alternative, the same mobile device may send a mobile station international services digital network (MSISDN) number, rather than an MIN or a client ID, to a short message service (SMS) server for SMS services. An MSISDN number generally identifies a subscriber on a mobile communication network, such as a global system for mobile communications (GSM) network.
In many cases, a service provider uses only one identifier, because the service provider only provides one service. But some mobile service providers offer a combination of mobile web services, J2ME-client applications, SMS services, and/or other services. Because each service uses a different identifier, it is difficult to recognize that the services are being provided to the same mobile device though various channels. Also, one or more of the above service-dependent identifiers may change relative to the mobile device. For example, a subscriber may purchase a different mobile device, which runs different client applications, but the new mobile device may be associated with the subscriber's prior MIN. Some multi-service mobile service providers associate the various services to a single user id. But, a user of one mobile device, may have multiple user IDs for different services, such as email services, instant messaging services, etc. Also, a user ID usually requires a mobile device user to log in before using a service, and often requires a user to specify the associations in a user profile, or the provider must deduce the associations while the user is logged in. These are extra steps that mobile device users often prefer not to perform. For example, many users access a service, such as a weather website, without logging in. Such users typically do not register for a user ID and typically do not register their device. However, such web services often leave a cookie with an identifier on the user's device. The same user may register for a user ID for an email service, but may not register the specific device. For multi-service providers, it is useful to determine which interactions occur with the same mobile device. However, trying to relate a large volume of interactions can reduce response times to the client devices, which can result in an undesirable user experience. It is with respect to these considerations and others that the present invention is directed.